ONE girl worked on a miniature violin, scrubbing pink paint onto the wood and stumbling over her words as nerves jangled.

Barely able to speak at first, she gradually relaxed and opened up in the warm presence of a sympathetic Royal visitor.

Another teenager, Chris Wood, was a little more assertive.

Distracting himself by torturing a ribbon of crepe paper while finding his voice, by the end he was breaking into full dialogue with Kate Middleton.

"Can I ask you something," he said. "What's your favourite football team?"

Out of loyalty to her husband, the Duchess insisted she supported Aston Villa.

Watching vulnerable pupils interact with the Duchess of Cambridge it was clear to see how The Art Room works.

Chris, 13, was sent to the pioneering Art Room at his Edinburgh school because he lacked confidence and couldn't stay out of trouble.

"I was moody and getting kicked out of class a lot," he said.

He also spoke animatedly to the Duchess about his involvement in the project, run by the charity The Art Room, of which she is patron.

"It is one of the best things you can do" he said, afterwards.

The scheme takes struggling pupils out of mainstream classes to enjoy art-based lessons in a relaxed environment, crucially backed up by therapeutic support.

It is the only Scottish branch of the charity - which has four similar projects in Oxfordshire and three in London, but hopes to find the funding to expand into Glasgow.

The Duchess, who has a genuine interest in mental health, hailed the Art Room "fantastic" and said it should be rolled out across every school in Scotland

In a round-table discussion with leaders from the charity, health service, education and Edinburgh City Council, she was told some pupils had arrived with low confidence and struggled socially.

They lacked essential skills in literacy and numeracy, all of which can be improved through therapeutic work.

The Duchess responded: "I think through therapy like this you can work with children from all different sorts of challenges, with one goal.

"Which is what I think is so fantastic."

She also asked if the young people were stigmatised for attending.

"There is a lot of stigma around mental health, not just from adults, but children and young people themselves," she said. "Are young people labelling the project as 'mental health'?"

She was reassured by Thomasina Hurrel, senior practitioner at the Art Room at Wester Hailes Education Centre (WHEC), that they were not, and urged the charity to expand.

"Do you have any plans for mobile sites? And then you need to have them in all schools."

Nick Booth, chief executive of the Royal Foundation set up by Kate and Prince William to support their work with charities, said he would expect a detailed list of thoughts from the Duchess inspired by her visit.

She was particularly interested in how the work could reach more children earlier and even work with parents.

Sheila Paton, senior education manger at Edinburgh Council who was responsible for bringing the charity to Wester Hailes three years ago said keeping young people in mainstream education was the best way of improving their chances, especially those from deprived backgrounds.

"I pounced on the idea of the art room. Some pupils need respite from the classroom- which we could offer - but the Art Room can provide the therapy they needed too, which we couldn't," said Ms Paton.

Lewis Paterson, acting principal at the WHEC, explained: "We see a lot of children, who because of their circumstances arrive with us in fight or flight mode. The Art Room helps develop the social and emotional intelligence of these young people who we identify as needing more support. They end up more confident articulate better able to work together, happier safer and ready to learn."